It was Game 5 at Madison Square Garden. The Sixers were beaten and battered, trailing the series 3-1 to New York. Joel Embiid was essentially playing on one leg and battling Bell’s Palsy. With the Knicks
holding a six-point lead with 28.9 seconds left, it felt like it was over — the series, the season, Embiid’s gutsy effort to come back from yet another meniscus surgery.
Not on Tyrese Maxey’s watch.
The electric guard pump faked a wing three, was bumped into by Mitchell Robinson, and sank the shot. After he made the free throw, Josh Hart split a pair on the other end. With 15.1 seconds left and his team trailing by three, Maxey flew up the court, danced around an Embiid screen, pulled up between the N and the E in the middle of New York’s court, and buried the logo trey over Robinson.
Tracy Morgan flipped him off. Jon Stewart was in disbelief. Ben Stiller looked like he’d arrived on the Severed Floor.
In an overtime win, in the most hostile of environments, Maxey dropped 46 points and nine assists to momentarily keep the Sixers’ season alive. It was a performance not unlike his outing in Milwaukee Thursday, where he put an S on his chest and dropped a career-high 54 points and nine assists in an overtime win over the Bucks on the second half of a back-to-back.
Shame on those who allowed a nightmare 2024-25 campaign to dampen their outlook on a 25-year-old who is on a First Team All-NBA track through 15 games in 2025-26.
Let’s revisit last season for a second. Everything about it was awful. Embiid played 19 games. Paul George, who was signed in a major free-agency splash, played 41 games. Several of the other veterans the team signed were hurt, ineffective or both. It was comically depressing.
To look at Maxey’s numbers, it’s easy to conclude he had a down year. His raw numbers were roughly the same as the prior season, but his efficiency took a major hit. With the team ravaged by injuries — including multiple injuries to Maxey himself — he wasn’t able to consistently find his footing … except for one stretch of the season.
During one 12-game span where Maxey was healthy and had adjusted to life atop the opponent’s scouting report, he was sensational. He averaged 33.7 points on 65.3% true shooting, numbers that align pretty well with the 33.4 points he’s averaging on 61.8% true shooting in 15 games this season.
In actuality, the aberration was the poor play.
That didn’t stop folks from wondering what the organization could get for Maxey in a trade. With the team having albatross contracts in Embiid and George, and an influx of young talent with Jared McCain returning as a sophomore and VJ Edgecombe being selected third overall, some wondered what the team could get for a player seemingly in between the team’s timelines. The Memphis Grizzlies acquiring four first-rounders from the Orlando Magic in a summer blockbuster for Desmond Bane piqued more interest from this segment of people.
Seems kind of insane now, right? People thought about trading this guy?!
The easiest argument against that went beyond stats — counting, analytical or otherwise. Maxey has represented hope from the moment he arrived. To dropping 39 during a peak COVID game to basically winning the team an elimination playoff game, his rookie season was sensational. He handled everything surrounding the Ben Simmons and James Harden situations with aplomb. And remember when Doc Rivers bizarrely lied about Maxey asking to come off the bench? Yeah, super weird, but Maxey never threw his coach under the bus.
And he’s yet again bearing the greatest of responsibilities as Embiid again battles injury issues. Yes, Maxey should mean a lot to Sixers fans, but he means hell of a lot more to his teammates. Watch the way he leads and they follow. This season, more than ever, he’s using his voice, getting on his teammates and setting a standard.
Think about it: who the hell would’ve predicted the Sixers would go 9-6 in their first 15 games with Embiid and George barely seeing the floor? Plenty of others deserve credit, but no one deserves more than Maxey.
This feels like a great lesson for us all to be less reactionary. In our social media world, it’s an easy trap to fall into, but all players have rough moments, games and even seasons. Hell, Maxey is sure to hit a little adversity playing over 40 minutes a night and carrying a team on his back.
The context matters, though. So does the character of the player. Some of you might’ve forgotten who Maxey is and what he’s all about. Whatever it is is ineffable. It’s clear though that Maxey has it in spades.
In Maxey’s second season, as a 21-year-old, he poured in 38 points in his first playoff start against Nick Nurse’s Toronto Raptors. That was a point where this writer decided he wasn’t going to put a ceiling on Maxey.
Perhaps you should all follow suit.
